Strikeforce on CBS: Bloody Fedor TKOs Rogers in Windy City thriller

It took one punch for Fedor Emilianenko to give fans exactly what they wanted.

Fedor connected with a spectacular right hand that decked Brett Rogers for a TKO 1:48 into the second round Saturday to cap off Strikeforce’s nationally televised MMA card on CBS.

The event took place in Hoffman Estates, Ill., outside of Chicago.

Rogers stunned the crowd about 30 seconds into the fight with his first punch, a left jab that sliced open a significant cut across the bridge of Fedor’s nose.

The cut began to profusely bleed almost immediately, at one point in the first round forcing the legendary Russian to use his fingers to try and clear the blood from the area around his eyes while Rogers was parked on top of him.

Earlier in the first round, Rogers backed up to Fedor’s quick combination of bombs. Fedor threw Rogers to the mat but Rogers quickly scrambled to his feet as the blood streamed from Fedor’s nose.

Fedor was breathing out of his mouth less than two minutes into the fight. Rogers, after leaning heavily on his opponent at the fence, moved into the middle of the cage and got tagged. Fedor exploded with punches and got down the scrambling Rogers. Rogers defended well against Fedor’s kimura attempt.

Rogers defended well on the ground and blocked Fedor’s superman punch before the round ended. The round could have gone either way.

Fedor and Rogers sized up one another for the first 50 seconds of Round Two before Fedor unleashed an eight-punch combination of lefts and rights to the head, each offering of which was easily blocked by Rogers.

At 3:23, Rogers backed up, adjusted his pants and allowed Fedor to come across the cage. Fedor danced a few steps. Rogers, with his hands down, opened up to throw a left, but Fedor sent a faster straight right hand that smashed Rogers square on the left cheek and sent him to the canvas. Fedor pounced for three more ground strikes but referee “Big” John McCarthy jumped in to wave it off.

“I felt really good (despite the cut),” Fedor said through an interpreter. “The main thing is not to be nervous, to take some time during the first round to learn a little bit the manners of the opponent, and then to look for (a weakness) and to use it.

“Well, no doubt Brett is a great fighter. But I watched a little bit his leg-play, and I found (a) moment and found the weak space in that leg-play.”

Rogers had Fedor in danger at various points in the slugfest but what was most surprising is how he handled himself when the fight went to the ground. The majority of pundits thought Fedor would respect Rogers’ stand-up -- or disrespect his ground game -- enough that they predicted a submission victory.

“I doubted myself a little bit,” Rogers admitted. “I should have thrown my hands a lot more, a lot more. That’s the only reason I failed today.”

The entertaining fight has a chance of happening again.

“If Brett would like to have a rematch, why not?” Fedor said.

“He wants to rematch me, I will gladly take that rematch,” said Rogers.

Strikeforce boss Scott Coker is likely going to wait to see how the program on CBS fared in the ratings before he names Fedor’s next opponent, be it Rogers or anyone else. No doubt Fedor will be on the next CBS card if this event was a ratings winner.

Fedor is now an astounding 31-1 with one no-contest, fighting a laundry list of top opponents. Rogers dropped to 10-1 for his career, not only losing for the first time but also failing to knock out or TKO his opponent.

“I hate it,” Rogers said of losing. “I’m coming back stronger. It (ticks) me off. I’m so heated, man, I can’t even put it into words, the words that I want to put it to.”

For more from Joe on the other Strikeforce-CBS fights, check out the links below:

• Jake Shields defeats Jason "Mayhem" Miller
  
• Gegard Mousasi defeats Sokoudjou
  
• Fabricio Werdum defeats Antonio Silva